Originally published in ST NEWS Volume 1 Issue 5, launched on October 5th, 1986.

Everyone must have heard from Psygnosis' first game on the ST (now, also supplied on expanded Amiga or Fat Mac), 'Brataccas'. This used to be one of the very first games on the ST, but it still sets standards for software to come.Recently, they published two new packages: 'Arena' and 'Deep Space'; again, Psygnosis seems to set standards.....

Deep Space

After booting up the program, one is welcomed by an astounding picture of a metal owl, with the text "Psygnosis Presents". My first thought was: "If the rest of the game is as good as this picture, it will sure be a hit!". Well, after a bit of loading (heavily speed-up!) another picture appears, which is just as good (or maybe even better) as the first: A sturdily built owl that just leaves his hawk-like space craft. If all goes well in the game, you'll never see him back (as far as I know). This picture also commands you to insert disk B. When you've done that, the drive will start loading again. After a while, the screen turns black and the game starts.At first, the game looks very much like 'Star Raiders'. But soon, it turns out to be a somewhat enhanced spacecraft you're in.The dashboard is divided into four sections: from left to right the on-board computer, steering part, weapon installations and scanner. You can turn the on-board computer on or off by either clicking on the "OFF" or "ON" word on the screen or pressing F1. Once you've choosen to turn it on, you can select various options (either with F2-F7 or the corresponding signs under the computer display). Here you can order various drones (repair drones, energy drones, and more), look if you're on course, specify your flight target, and a lot of other things. The steering part consists of one steering weel. You can 'drag' it left, right, up, down, etc. with the mouse, thus steering your spacecraft. You can also accomplish this by moving the joystick on port #1 or using the arrow keys of your keyboard.To the right of the steering wheel you can see a 2 by 3 grid of option switches. Here you select missiles, quarks, and various other options. You can e.g. retro thrust, lock/free windows, etc.The scanner can be activated using either F10 or clicking the arrow up on the screen (right of the 2 by 3 I've just talked about). Here you can have a look at the positions of enemy vehicles, etc.During game play, you're attacked by extraterrestrials, like Vexon scouts, who whizz past you and blow hell out of you if you don't know what you're doing. The action graphics are superb!Your target is to trade a bit with various planets. As you gain more money, the quest starts to be somewhat easier. But watch my choice of words: easier, but not easy!You must look out not to crash into any Vexon scouts, and you must avoid being hit too often. When you don't do that, you end up bleeding to death outside your craft, somewhere in Deep Space....

Arena

'Arena' is a sports game, for 1-4 players. One can compete in various events: Hundred Meters (Dash), Long Jump, High Jump, Pole Vault, Shot Put and Javelin.Actions and options are choosen using the left mouse key (that you'll have to double-click), whereas you use the right mouse key twice to quit or pause an event.

After starting the game, I was quite disappointed. I had just seen "Deep Space" and one can safely say that anyone can create the "Arena" front picture (the second; the first is the metal owl, again, which looks the same - very good).But when I've inserted the second disk, a very nice picture appears after a short while (again, short, because Psygnosis used a disk-turbo). From this picture, that shows action scenes from all the sporting events, you can select your event. You can also choose to load or save a game, start a new game (with new names), quit, or look at the score board.The animation is very good, especially the individual movements. The smooth link-up between movements could be done better, but that's because I used to be very spoiled with looking at the superb movement of sprites in Epyx' "Summer Games" (both I and II) back on the Commodore 64 (cough! cough!). And now here comes the only disadvantage of the game: It uses the keyboard to get the athletes moving: the "A" and "'" key, to be exact. After starting the event (after the appearance of the athlete, this can be done by double-clicking the left mouse key), you have to press "A" and "'" by turns. The quicker you do that, the better the performances are (let's not talk about the keyboard). If you don't act immediately, the athlete starts to say things (in "Brataccas"-like air bubbles), like "We seem to be lacking the competitive spirit here", "Will you pay attention", "Somebody...wake him up" or "How about a game of Deep Space...another classic from Psygnosis".After you've had your turn, an umpire appears on the scene, that tells (or rather, insinuates) you how you've done. When you've had a foul, he might say things like "It's a foul...ha....ha....ha", "How Amusing" or "Oh...how very unfortunate for you...snigger...snigger". If you've done a bad job, he comes up with sentences like "My 4 year old son can do better than this...it's pathetic", "Gasp..wheeve...cough..choke", "The moral of the story is....give up", "Well, we might as well pack up now" or "Ever thought of taking up golf". When you've made a foul at high jump, he might add something like "How unfortunate....you seem to have knocked the bar off....snigger". But the athlete isn't silent - he automatically replies, with remarks like "Push off....shorty" or "Out of the way...short stop". In those cases, the umpire sometimes adds "OK Mr. Average".

All in all a very amusing game, but I think Psygnosis had better used the joystick facilities of the ST instead of the mouse-and keyboard facilities. And there are a few little bugs in "Arena" as well: When you play Pole Vault, quite a big piece of the stick is missing. You'll only notice it once it hits the ground - but you will still not see it. And there's one more: Sometimes, another athlete appears on the background (practicing, I suppose), who seems to walk in front of some bushes an some other umpires on the fore-ground. But these are mere beauty bugs. It's still a very good game.

Disclaimer
The text of the articles is identical to the originals like they appeared
in old ST NEWS issues. Please take into consideration that the author(s)
was (were) a lot younger and less responsible back then. So bad jokes,
bad English, youthful arrogance, insults, bravura, over-crediting and
tastelessness should be taken with at least a grain of salt. Any contact
and/or payment information, as well as deadlines/release dates of any
kind should be regarded as outdated. Due to the fact that these pages are
not actually contained in an Atari executable here, references to scroll
texts, featured demo screens and hidden articles may also be irrelevant.